I am flying to Pittsburgh ... again.
It is work and it is good and we are trying to save health care from itself as it has become a health giant industrial complex and Doctors do it for the money ... or to be Godlike ... or because it's a job that pays well.
There are some Nurses and doctors though who still practice for the reasons that they entered the field ... to practice medicine where people need it ... on the streets making housecalls or house-less calls to demonstrate that the current system is pretty screwed up. The best health care in the world with the worst way to access it.
Yesterday was one of those crazy days when change comes along that I wasn't looking for. That's how it normally happens though ... change just comes. We're never prepared. It's like someone dying who'se been sick for a long time and everybody know that it's going to happen and then it does ... and everyone is shocked. So change came yesterday and I spent the better part of it with friends who love me and whom I love and we planned what to do now.
This morning I lingered and stayed in bed knowing that I would be on another plane. Goddess wasn't happy about it at all lying in front of her fan looking at me with sad eyes. So in the middle of breakfast I decided to take her for a walk.
We made it to the marsh and then to the back river before finally coming to Art's house. Art is an Auburn fan and he was talking to Paul who is a Nortre Dame fan.
"Saw the story on Union Mission in the paper," they both yelled.
"I don't work there anymore," I replied as Goddess and I passed.
"Well, they got bailed out," Paul said.
I stopped and turned around.
"From?" I said staring.
"Their debt," came the response.
It is true that when I left there was debt. A lot of it. For good reasons though. We'd built the nations first comprehensive health care campus for the poor and uninsured ... every discipline of health was co-located. And it cost more than we thought it would. It's just that way sometime. I can go to the grocery store and it costs me more than I thought it would. Then Judy, the CFO decided to match this debt with her own and suddenly we're talking big money. Then we had a small minded small man of a banker as Board chair and it was a massive train wreck getting ready to happen.
I remember sitting in my office, head in my hands saying to myself, "Shit! How does this happen? You spend you life trying to make the world a better place and this is what you get?"
I know how to raise money. At the time the budget was around $10 Million a year. but ... half that in debt? I didn't know what to do.
So I did what I did yesterday when change came. I picked up the phone and started calling all of my friends, and the friends of Union Mission, who gave it money. I explained what had happened and asked for their advice.
"Mike," my dear friend Terry Ball finally said on the 20th-something call, "only government deals in money that big. Go ask government."
Terry would know. He was Union Mission second largest funder for years and works for government.
So I went to see Pete Lakikis and Urss Abolt of Chatham County goverment. I told them the same story I'd told Terry and the others. "We need your help but it is for the people you are here to serve?"
"How much?" Russ asked.
I grimmaced. "A lot," I said.
Then this dance began. It's lasted almost four years now. I was on the sidelines for most of it, orchastrating arguments, and wasn't involved in this last go-round at all, but it ended recently. The County did what it should and invested the money in protecting the work. The debt will soon all be gone. The focus can resume on helping the poor, broken and shattered people of the world.
The sad thing though are all of the changes that have taken place. Union Mission is a shell of what it was. Changes happened. It split itself in half, gave itself away and now is back where it was fifteen years ago. People will take issue with me saying this, which is fine, but I've far more than earned my right to say whatever I want to say ... and obviously I am.
Some change moves forward. Some change backwards. It is always fascinating to see who allows which.
"Hey," I yell at Art and Paul, "good for Union Mission. They took most of what I have. I'm pleased for them today. I wish them well. The people they are trying to help ... they deserve well."
"Your team sucks," Art yells like a typical Auburn fan. For Christ sake he could be a small minded little bank President.
"Artie," I yell turning with Goddess for home. "Two words for you! One is a verb and the other is a pronoun."
Art is obviously confused.
"The pronoun is you."
Then he burst out laughing, getting it.
Unlike so many others that I know.
